Roger Sullivan wasn’t an educator, or a scientist, or an explorer, or a military hero, or a celebrated humanitarian. His public service consisted of a single term as a probate court clerk. So why does he have a high school named after him?

In Chicago, the reason is obvious. Roger Sullivan was the political boss who built the Democratic Machine.

Born in 1861, Sullivan grew up in rural poverty outside Rockford. He came to Chicago as a teenager to work in the West Side rail yards, and soon became active in the Democratic Party. His election to the Cook County Probate Court came in 1890.

Chicago had a competitive, two-party system then. The Democrats had several factions who battled among themselves. The Republicans were divided that way, too.

If either party could become united, that party would easily win elections. Different political chieftains kept trying to build a permanent coalition. Sullivan was the man who succeeded.

Over the course of twenty years, he gradually brought the local Democrats together. Often it was like herding cats. But though he suffered setbacks, he kept going.

Cicero is the suburb nearest to the center of Chicago. In physical appearance, it look enough like the city that you might think it was just another one of those Community Areas, instead of a separate political entity.

Cicero Township was established in the 1860s, with an original size of 36 square miles. Over the next few decades, the City of Chicago nibbled away at its outer sections, while Oak Park and Berwyn went their own ways. In 1901 the current borders of the Town of Cicero were set in place.

Unlike some towns, Cicero did not grow outward from a single point. Rather there were a number of separate settlements that gradually came together and coalesced. These included communities like Clyde, Drexel, Hawthorne, and Morton Park.

Cicero had excellent railroad transportation and low taxes. Industry was attracted to the town, and by the 1920s it became the state’s second largest manufacturing center. The population grew from 16,000 in 1900 to over 66,000 in 1930.

The year was 1920. At midnight, as the calendar clicked over onto January 17, Prohibition became the law of the land. Chicago’s reaction was a big yawn.

Okay, we all know about Chicago in the Roaring Twenties. We know that the city became the bootlegging capital of America. We’ve seen the gangster movies.

But that was all in the future on that January evening in 1920. The crowds at the taverns were no larger than on a typical Friday. When the clock struck 12, the patrons downed their drinks and left, the bartender locked up . . . and that was that.

The Prohibition law said that the manufacture, sale, or distribution of intoxicating beverages was illegal. However, people were allowed to have booze and beer in their own homes for their own use. They could keep all the beverage they wanted, as long as they bought it before January 17.

So Chicagoans began stocking up. Liquor stores had raised prices, but the public kept buying.

Any Chicago neighborhood can shout that. But Chicago’s official Community Area #1 is Rogers Park, in the city’s northeast corner. That’s where some anonymous U of C social scientist started the numbering system in the 1920s.

The earliest residents here were the Potawatomi. Sometime before 1800 they established villages along the glacial ridge that’s now Ridge Boulevard. The land eastward toward the lake was too low and swampy for much of anything.

When white Americans moved in, they stuck to the high ground. In 1839 Philip Rogers built a cabin near (present-day) Ridge and Lunt, and began truck farming. Over the next several years, other farmers settled in Mr.

Abraham Lincoln is a filmmaker’s favorite. He’s been the subject of almost as many movies as Al Capone.

The reason for this is clear. Honest Abe is America’s secular saint. Everybody wants a piece of him. Republicans have used the Spielberg film to remind the public that their party ended slavery. The Democrats’ response has been, “What have you done for us lately?”

Lincoln (the movie) takes place during a few weeks in January 1865. Lincoln (the president) has just been re-elected to a second term. The rebels are on their last legs, and the Civil War will soon be over. Now is the time to end slavery, once and for all.

Lincoln had already issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This said that all slaves in the rebel states would become free, as soon as the Union reconquered those states.

We are in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, on 51st Street a few blocks east of Ashland. In 2013 the ribbon commercial strip is mostly gone, with many of the lots vacant. Meanwhile, the city has spruced up the streetscape a bit by planting trees along the sidewalk parkways.

The main clue to the location is the trolley bus. Only two trolley bus lines ever operated on the South Side--the other was 47th Street. In the distance, the steeple of the former St. Martin Lutheran Church is also visible.

This 1952 photo was taken on the South Side--for purpose of the quiz, that's somewhere east of Western, between Cermak and 79th. The physical surroundings have changed greatly over sixty years, though there are a couple of clues that can help identify the site.

If you think you know the location, send in your guess as a Comment. I'll post a contemporary photo tomorrow.

It’s 1901 and it’s winter. The football season has ended, and baseball is just a memory. Only Canadians care about hockey. You say there’s a new sport called basketball?

But there’s big sports news in Chicago this January 8. The first national bowling championships are being held here.

Americans had played various forms of bowling since colonial times. In 1895 a group of New York clubs founded the American Bowling Congress. They drew up a list of standard rules and equipment specs.

Within a few years, bowling clubs in other cities joined the ABC. Now there was talk about having a tournament to decide who the country’s best bowlers were. Chicago was given the honor of hosting the first ABC Tournament in 1901.

The Chicagoans leased the second floor of a warehouse at Wabash and Randolph. Six bowling lanes were donated by Brunswick, an equipment manufacturer eager to promote the sport.